RALEIGH, N.C. (March 20, 2014) – A committee of over sixty women and men chosen by union members in both the private and public sector from across North Carolina met to interview candidates for statewide elected office in Raleigh earlier this month. This Committee on Political Education (COPE) recommended the North Carolina State AFL-CIO endorse Kay Hagan for re-election to U.S. Senate; Mark Martin for Chief Justice of the North Carolina Supreme Court; Cheri Beasley, Robin Hudson, and Sam J. Ervin IV for North Carolina Supreme Court; and Mark Davis and Lucy Inman for North Carolina Court of Appeals.

The North Carolina State AFL-CIO Executive Board has now approved all the committee’s recommendations by the requisite two-thirds vote, completing the endorsement process.

“The fact of the matter is that Kay Hagan is the only candidate for U.S. Senate in North Carolina who cannot be bought by Art Pope, the Koch Brothers, or any of their corporate front-groups,” said state AFL-CIO president James Andrews. “The last thing working families in North Carolina need is a second U.S. Senator doing the bidding of organized greed.”

Unlike the senior senator from North Carolina or any of her potential Republican rivals, Sen. Hagan supports increasing the federal minimum wage, opposes cuts to Social Security and Medicare, and has fought to ensure more North Carolinians have access to affordable health care and fought for the restoration of federal emergency unemployment benefits.

“I am honored to receive the support of AFL-CIO and of working families across North Carolina,” said Sen. Hagan. “Growing jobs for the middle class is my number one priority, and I spend every day in Washington working hard on behalf of middle class families across the state. Whether it is working to protect Social Security and Medicare for our seniors, fighting to increase the minimum wage to benefit over a million North Carolina workers, or standing up to special interests, I will always put North Carolina and our working families first.”

As a result of Sen. Hagan’s principled stands on issues that affect the economic security of North Carolina’s struggling working families, she will have to swim upstream against a current of corporate cash already flooding our state’s television airwaves with misleading political attack ads.

Thanks to Citizens United and to the General Assembly’s repeal of public financing of judicial elections – repealed in no small part because of personal lobbying by state Republican mega-donor Art Pope himself – the judges and justices labor has endorsed also face an uphill battle to raise the funds necessary to win election and re-election.

Nevertheless, North Carolina’s unions commit to doing their part to educate and mobilize union members and their families in support of candidates who seek to uphold the law, not undermine it, and who stand for fairness for all North Carolinians, not just a privileged few.

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The North Carolina State AFL-CIO is the largest association of local unions and union councils in North Carolina, representing over one-hundred thousand union members, fighting for good jobs, safe workplaces, workers’ rights, consumer protections, and quality public services on behalf of ALL working families. PO Box 10805, Raleigh, NC 27605.

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The North Carolina State AFL-CIO is the largest association of local unions and union councils in North Carolina, representing over one-hundred and forty-thousand union members, fighting for good jobs, safe workplaces, workers’ rights, consumer protections, and quality public services on behalf of ALL working people.